A Gartner study of the top priorities for critical skills and competencies indicates the effect of the shift to hybrid work and the need that workers have for more and new skills. The total number of skills required for a single job is up by 6.3%, as new skills replace old skills.
The net result is an increase in upskilling training. A?Capterra survey?of HR leaders found that?nearly half (49%) of organizations are increasing their learning and development (L&D) spend in 2022.
Along with those pressures on upskilling and reskilling, the latest Guild study, Upskilling for L&D Practitioners, shows that L&D practitioners stay current primarily through self-selected and self-directed means. This may not require budget but it does affect the amount of time required over the course of a year by both new and experienced practitioners as the result of:
- Adaptation to new task assignments rather than changing jobs
- Fundamental changes to practitioner beliefs from readings and discussions
Counter the Great Resignation: Reskill, upskill, and empower
The changes to work, the pressure to adapt to new skill requirements, and to adjust to hybrid work have their effects in we see as The Great Resignation. This applies throughout the employment spectrum, from the newly hired all the way to executives. Individuals feel that they are not going anywhere, feel dissatisfied, begin looking for opportunity, and become turnover and burnout statistics. Digital transformation and the shift to remote work require different social skills and different technology. Frontline supervisors and middle managers need to adjust their style, and executives must empower managers through servant leadership in order to remain successful.
What to do about it
There are some fundamental steps to address these changes. Begin with a skill gap analysis in order to identify the priority issues. These issues will probably have to be addressed in parallel, rather than in a series. Early steps should involve consideration of succession planning and leadership development. Adding a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) or an LMS with strong LXP features, and helping employees understand how to use it, would be a good investment.
Consider the priority upskilling needs in response to known or anticipated knowledge drain and digital transformation needed to support working from home. Remember that self-directed upskilling is the norm for people in our field.
There will be opportunities to reorganize assignments and duties to better support workflows. Although artificial intelligence is not a fully mature field of discipline at this point, watch for the places where it can be used successfully as it develops for authoring, delivery, and personalization.
Make use of publications, such as Learning Solutions and The Learning Guild studies and research. If you have several people in your development team, you can set up study sessions to share your learnings. If you are in an area convenient for attendance at local conferences, judicious use of these is also a good resource. And finally, make use of webinars and Guild Online Conferences to fill in key skill gaps.